ST. LOUIS - 3M is suing a former executive in federal court for allegedly leveraging privileged 3M information, including customer contacts and emails, at his job with a competing company, according to a complaint filed on June 21 in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Missouri.
The former executive, defendant Quinton Feltner, resides partly in Missouri and partly in Arizona.
Feltner, who began working for 3M in 2019, went to work for a competitor company, Nuance, in October 2020. 3M filed a motion for a preliminary injunction against Feltner, who left his employment as a high-level sales executive. Through his employment with Nuance, 3M requires employees to delete any confidential and proprietary information, including customer contacts and e-mails on Feltner's iPhone, that 3M believed he retained after his departure.
Prior to 3M filing the preliminary injunction, Feltner had agreed to the Employment Agreement and Deletion Protocol that required him to permanently delete all information obtained while working at 3M, the company says.
3M seeks to have the court enforce the Employment Agreement and Deletion Protocol and have Feltner provide proof of permanent deletion of sensitive information that may cause 3M irreparable harm.
3M is represented by Jeffrey L. Schultz of Armstrong Teasdale LLP.
U.S. District Court for Eastern Missouri case number 4:21-cv-00728-SRC